Kwatsi Alibaruho

After STS-130, Alibaruho was selected to serve a 7-month temporary assignment as Deputy Chief of the EVA, Robotics, and Crew Systems Operations Division, where he assisted the Division Chief in management of approximately 200 civil service and contractor personnel and the Division’s two major facilities, the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) and the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF).

Shortly after, Alibaruho completed training as a Space Shuttle Flight Director, now qualified to manage operations on both spacecraft. During his Flight Director career, Alibaruho served as an Orbit ISS Flight Director for Assembly Missions STS-115 / ISS-12A and STS-123/ISS-1J/A. He served as an Orbit ISS Flight Director for Expeditions 11 – 28, logging literally hundreds of shifts in Mission Control. Alibaruho served as a Shuttle Orbit Flight Director for Missions STS-126 / ULF-2, STS-127 / ISS-2J/A, STS-128 / ISS-17A, and STS-134 / ULF-6.

As of November 2005, only 58 people had directed human spaceflight missions. The Flight Director class of 2005, of which Alibaruho is a member, is the second largest ever appointed and the most diverse. The nine-member group also included three women and two Hispanics. Leading a team of flight controllers, support personnel and engineering experts, a flight director has the overall responsibility to manage and carry out Space Shuttle flights and International Space Station expeditions. A flight director also leads and orchestrates planning and integration activities with flight controllers, payload customers, space station partners and others.

By August 2005, Alibaruho had completed more than 700 hours of training as an International Space Station Flight Director and reported for active duty in Mission Control immediately following completion of NASA's "Return-to-flight" mission, STS-114 / LF-1, a flight led by his longtime mentors Paul Hill and Mark Ferring.

In May 2001, Alibaruho was selected as the Manager of the ISS Life Support Systems Group where he managed and trained a team of approximately 25 Flight Controllers. He served in this capacity for just over three years until he was selected as a Flight Director in February 2005.

Alibaruho earned a Bachelor of Science in Avionics in 1994 from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In May 2011, he earned a Master of Business Administration from Rice University through Rice's Executive MBA Program, which he attended full-time while concurrently performing his duties as Flight Director.

Alibaruho started with NASA in 1993 as a Cooperative Education student serving in the Mission Operations Directorate's ISS Life Support Systems Group. Post-graduation, he serviced as an ISS Life Support Systems Flight Controller (MCC Call Sign: ECLSS) from 1995–2000. During that time, Alibaruho became one of the first ECLSS officers qualified for duty in the new International Space Station Program and served on missions ISS-1A/R, STS-88/ISS-2A, STS-101/ISS-2A.2a, STS-106/ISS-2A.2b, STS-97/ISS-4A, STS-105/ISS-5A.1.